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November 2013

POPLARVILLE - Students in Lourie Barnett’s microprocessor class just looked like they were playing with toys. In reality, they were demonstrating how robots they made in class could get out of the way of an obstruction or follow an obstacle course. “It operates via sensors like the remote on your tv,” Barnett said. The microprocessor course is part of the electronics technology program that prepares students for jobs in a variety of industries. “I just retired from the Army and I want to go offshore,” said student David Lee of Purvis. The students used kits to build the robots with servos that make the wheels turn, sensors and motors. Then they use computers to program them. “Last year, we did the basic microprocessor kit,” Barnett said. “This year, we souped it up with the robots.” The students used 70 to 80 programs. Students who complete the electronics technology program earn an associate in applied science degree. The program is taught in block format - a course meets all day for two weeks with a two-week break before the next course begins. For more information contact, Barnett at 601 403-1109 or at lbarnett@prcc.edu.

Pearl River Community College electronics technology student James Prater of Picayune uses a broom to demonstrate how a robot he built in microprocessor class will turn away from objects in its path.PRCC Public Relations photo

A microprocessor robot built by a student in the Pearl River Community College electronics technology program follows a circular obstacle course.PRCC Public Relations photo

POPLARVILLE - Almost two dozen alumni return to Pearl River Community College Sunday to perform with the Pearl River County Community Band and Chorus. The band and chorus will reprise Our America, a patriotic concert, at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10, at the Brownstone Center for the Arts on the PRCC campus. There is no admission fee. Pearl River Community College’s Brownstone Center for the Arts is excited to host the Pearl River County Community Band and Chorus for their first performance in Poplarville,” said Archie Rawls, PRCC fine arts chair and Brownstone Center director. “Their program of patriotic music will be a wonderful tribute to our nation and to all our military veterans on the eve of Veteran’s Day 2013. “Thanks to Mr. Johnny Baker and Mrs. Linda Hancock, directors of the band and chorus, for their help in making this concert possible for our community.” Alumni in the band include Allison Fornea, Sherri Hutchison, Joy Broom, Robert Woodyard, Lydia Jelinski, Gary Rushing, Ronnie Rawls, Andrew Heaton, David Morris, Kathy Koss and Yancy Wise. Chorus members who attended PRCC include Darlene Ashe, Velma Henly, Lisa Lott, Sandra Stockstill, Billy Sheffield, Billy Walley, Percy Folks and Ernie Lovell, PRCC Development Foundation director. Band member Betty Kelly is a PRCC adjunct Spanish instructor, and chorus member Jennifer St. John is an adjunct English instructor. The program will include well-known favorites such as The Stars and Stripes Forever, God Bless America and America the Beautiful along with other selections. In addition to PRCC, sponsors for the free concert are Holliday Real Estate, Poplarville Insurance, Wells Insurance LLC and Williams Financial Group.

POPLARVILLE - High school seniors will visit Pearl River Community College on Thursday, Nov. 14, for Senior Preview Day. The students will go on guided tours of the campus, hear RiverRoad showchoir, The Voices ensemble and the cheerleaders perform and be entered for a scholarship give-away. They also will attend a PRCC fair to learn about academic and career-technical programs, admission requirements and financial aid. The day will conclude with pizza and games. Information about Senior Preview Day has been provided to high school counselors in PRCC’s six-county district. For information, telephone the PRCC Office of Recruitment and Orientation at 601 403-1197.

POPLARVILLE - Pearl River Community College will offer 10 winter term courses during the Christmas holiday break. The courses will meet from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 16, through Friday, Dec. 20. Final exams will be on Saturday, Dec. 21. Courses offered on the Poplarville campus are child development methods and materials, social studies for pre-school children, music appreciation for non-music majors and general psychology. Forrest County Center courses are English composition I and II, world literature I, world civilization I, music appreciation for non-music majors and introduction to sociology. To register, go to the college website at www.prcc.edu. New students should click on “Future Students” to apply for admission. The courses are transcripted as part of the spring 2014 semester. The spring semester schedule can be found under the Academics tab on the website and is updated as classes fill.

The Senior Preview Day will be held Thursday, November 14 on the Poplarville campus. Sign in for the event will be at 9:00am at the PRCC tent in front of the Library. The event will last from 9:00-2:00 and include choir performances, free pizza, games and t-shirt giveaways.

Schedule

9:00 - 10:30 Sign in at the PRCC tent in front of the Library

9:00 - 11:00 Campus tours

11:00 - 11:45 Live scholarship drawings plus performances by the RiverRoad Showchoir, The Voices, & Cheerleaders in the Brownstone Center

English instructor Greg Underwood of Hattiesburg has been named Humanities Teacher of the Year at Pearl River Community College. The Mississippi Humanities Council annually honors teachers from all regions of the state with the award. Each honoree receives an honorarium and presents a special lecture in his or her discipline to the community. Underwood will present “Debating in the Public Sphere: The Difficulty of Defining Words” on Dec. 4 at PRCC’s Forrest County Center where he teaches. “As an English teacher, I naturally have an interest in the way we use - and misuse - words to define the lives we have around us,” he said. “My topic focuses on the difficulty of creating mutual understanding in the public sphere when various constituencies use the same words for differing ends.” Underwood holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala., and the master’s degree in English from the University of Memphis where he was a teaching assistant. He has done graduate course work at the University of Southern Mississippi and was a graduate teaching assistant there for three years. He came to PRCC in 1997, teaching English on the Poplarville campus until 2003 when he moved to the Forrest County Center. Underwood served as Forrest County Center instructional area coordinator for art, criminal justice, English, foreign languages, music, reading and speech from 2008-2012 when he became department chair for the same subjects. He also was named to the Forrest County Center Honors Faculty in 2011. While at the Poplarville campus, he served as Faculty Association vice president and held the same office from 2005-07 at the Forrest County Center. He also served two years as a board member and on the regional executive committee of the Two-Year College English Association. “Greg has been a devoted teacher at Pearl River Community College, who always puts his students’ best interests first,” said Dr. Cecil Burt, vice president for Forrest County operations. “We believe he does an excellent job in the classroom and as department chair.”

POPLARVILLE - Dr. Ann Moore recently received two honors from her peers in the counseling profession.Moore, director of the Counseling, Advisement and Placement Center at Pearl River Community College, received the College Counselor of the Year Award from the Pine Belt Counseling Association, a division of the Mississippi Counseling Association. The MCA presented Moore with an award for “excellence in counseling, authenticity, compassion and advocacy” during the association’s fall conference in Jackson Nov. 6-8.The award was for Moore’s work in the Mississippi Community/Junior College Counseling Association.Moore is a member of numerous professional organizations and currently is president of the MCJCA. She is a past president of the Mississippi Vocational Counselors’ Association and past secretary/treasurer and vice president of the MCJCA. As the organization’s vice president, she coordinated the group’s 2013 convention at PRCC’s Lowery A. Woodall Advanced Technology Center in Hattiesburg.Moore has been at PRCC for 34 years after three years as an elementary school counselor and psychometrist with the Lamar County School District. She was PRCC’s career-tech counselor from 1980 through 2007 when she was named to her current position.

High school seniors who won scholarships to Pearl River Community College on Nov. 14 during Wildcat Fest preview day are, from left, Joshua Neal of Purvis, Brianna Varnado of Picayune, Brianna Pate of Bay St. Louis, Kiara Robertson of Hattiesburg and Kasie Bowers of Picayune. They are shown with Casey Rawls, PRCC director of recruitment and orientation.

RiverRoad showchoir performs for the high school students.

High school students gather information from booths during Wildcat Fest.

POPLARVILLE - A Pearl River Community College student is combining his love of art with a promising career as a tattoo artist. The art of Derez Peters of Columbia is currently featured in Ink Pushers Magazine, which describes itself as an up-and-coming publication based in Seattle, Wash. Peters has been a licensed tattoo artist for two years and is manager of the Clan of the Red Claw Tattoos in Hattiesburg. “I plan to major in fine arts, but it’s kind of at my own pace,” he said.

Peters has completed one year at PRCC and is taking more art courses. “I’ve had two other students who have worked professionally as tattoo artists,” said art instructor Charleen Null. “Tattoos require the same kind of artistic ability as a painting or drawing.” Peters explains in the magazine that he particularly enjoys black-and-gray realism and specializes in portrait tattoos. He has been drawing since age 6 and has always known he wanted a career in art. “If I get my degree, I’d like to do a little teaching,” he said. Peters can be followed on Facebook and Instagram by searching his name.

Derez Peters of Columbia holds Ink Pushers Magazine which features his tattoo artistry on two pages. Peters is an art student at Pearl River Community College.PRCC Public Relations photo

POPLARVILLE - Dr. Stephen Black, director of the Pearl River Community College Honors Institute, recently led a session at the National Collegiate Honors Council meeting in New Orleans. Black, along with Ben Skaggs of the Environmental Protection Agency at Stennis Space Center and Dr. Robert Kröger of Mississippi State University, discussed developing successful community involvement programs. Skaggs is director of the Gulf of Mexico Program which offers an intership to an honors student each semester. Kröger heads the REACH program at MSU and is working with PRCC students to monitor water quality in the area. Their presentation was entitled “First You Make the ‘Roux:’ Blending Pedagogical Ingredients to Transform Students and Community.” “We had a lot of good response from it,” Black said. Rachel Fowler of Purvis is the fall semester intern with the Gulf of Mexico Program. A spring semester intern will be selected after interviews in February. All PRCC honors students attended a day-long workshop on Nov. 12 at Stennis called “Getting Your Message Out.” The workshop focused on targeting audiences, preparing presentations and social media. For more information on the PRCC Honors Institute, contact Black at sblack@prcc.edu or 601 403-1274.

POPLARVILLE - Tickets are on sale for Christmas at the River, a musical celebration of the holidays at Pearl River Community College. The concert will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5, at the Ethel Holden Brownstone Center for the Arts on the PRCC campus. The program will include a variety of traditional and modern Christmas music by the PRCC Singers choir, The Voices ensemble, Symphonic Band, String of Pearls dance squad, JazzCats jazz band, Drum Line, Brass Ensemble and Guitar Ensemble. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased on-line at www.brownstonecenter.com or by calling 601 403-1378. (Telephone sales will not be available during the Thanksgiving break and will resume on Monday, Dec. 2.)

Children at the Pearl River Community College child development center donated canned food to Brother’s Keeper Ministries for the holidays. Brother’s Keeper director Susan Fuller read a story to the preschoolers on Nov. 21 and talked with them about Thanksgiving.